Show # 1102 playlist

This is one of those weeks where the show takes on a life of its own, despite my efforts to keep it nice and organized. I mean, what's with all these Texas bands, for instance? Take the first hour. It starts off with a nice progression through the years 1965-68. But then, something happens...

Artist: Beatles
Title: I've Just Seen A Face
Source: LP: Rubber Soul
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Label: Capitol
Year: 1965
Consider the case of Dave Dexter, Jr. Dexter was the guy at Capitol Records who decided in late 1962 that there was no profit in Capitol releasing records by the hot new British band known as the Beatles that had just been signed to their UK partner label, EMI. After he was finally persuaded to issue I Want To Hold Your Hand as a single in late 1963, he became the guy responsible for determining which songs got released in what format: LP or 45 RPM single. He also set the song lineups for all the Beatle albums released in the US up to and including Revolver in 1966. In 1965 he decided to change the entire tone of the Rubber Soul album by deleting the more soulful numbers and substituting a pair of more acoustical tunes that he had left off the US release of Help. This was a deliberate attempt to tie in the Beatles with the folk-rock movement, which at the time of Rubber Soul's release was at the peak of its popularity. Oddly enough, there are still people out there who prefer the US version of the album, from which this track (one of the two songs from the UK version of Help) was played.

Artist: Count Five
Title: Psychotic Reaction
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released as a 45 RPM single)
Writer: Ellner/Chaney/Atkinson/Byrne/Michaelski
Label: Rhino (original label: Double Shot)
Year: 1966
San Jose, California, had a vibrant teen music scene in the late 60s, despite the fact that the relatively small city was overshadowed by San Francisco at the other end of the bay (both cities are considered part of the same metropolitan market). One of the more popular bands in town was this group of five individuals who chose to dress up like Bela Lugosi's Dracula, capes and all. Musically, they idolized the Yardbirds (Jeff Beck era), and for slightly more than three minutes managed to sound more like their idols than the Yardbirds themselves (who by then had replaced Beck with Jimmy Page).

Artist: Sparkles
Title: No Friend of Mine
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the Psychedelic Era (originally released as a 45 RPM single)
Writer: Turnbow/Parks
Label: Rhino (original label: Hickory)
Year: 1967
It shouldn't be a surprise that the state of Texas would produce its share of garage/psychedelic bands. After all, the place used to be a medium-sized country. In fact, one of the first bands to actually use the word psychedelic in an album title was the 13th Floor Elevators out of Austin. The Sparkles hailed from a different part of the state, one known for its high school football teams as much as anything else: West Texas. Recorded in Big Spring, No Friend of Mine was one of a series of regional hits for the Sparkles that got significant airplay in places like Midland, Odessa and Monahans.

Artist: Doors
Title: Touch Me
Source: CD: Best of the Doors (originally released on LP: The Soft Parade and as a 45 RPM single)
Writer: Robbie Kreiger
Label: Elektra
Year: 1968
The fourth Doors album was a departure from their previous work. No longer would the entire band be credited for all the tracks the band recorded. In addition, the group experimented with adding horns and other studio embellishments. Nowhere is this more evident than on Touch Me, the only hit single from the album.

Artist: Graham Nash
Title: Prison Song
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Graham Nash
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1973
Here's where the show started taking on a life of its own. I seriously doubt I could have planned a alternate year regression from 1973-1967, so it must be the show's fault. Prison Song itself is one of those songs that by all rights should have been a huge hit. It was by a name artist. It had a catchy opening harmonica riff and a haunting melody. I can only surmise that once again Bill Drake (the man who controlled top 40 radio in the 60s) decided that the lyrics were too controversial for AM radio and had the song blacklisted, much as he had done with the Byrds Eight Miles High a few years earlier. Those lyrics center on a subject that most Americans would rather pretend didn't exist: the utter absurdity of drug laws and the unequal sentences for violation of those laws in the US and its various states.

Artist: Traffic
Title: Medicated Goo
Source: LP: Welcome To The Canteen
Writer: Winwood/Miller
Label: United Artists
Year: 1971
Welcome To The Canteen was not originally meant to thought of as a Traffic album, even though it included all the members of that band (plus a couple more people). Instead, the album had a list of every musician performing on the album on the front cover. If this indeed had been an official Traffic album, it would mark the second time Dave Mason had quit and returned to the group.

Artist: Country Joe and the Fish
Title: Silver and Gold
Source: CD: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm
Writer: Joe McDonald
Label: Rhino
Year: 1969
Country Joe and the Fish were one of a handfull of acts to appear at both the Monterey and Woodstock festivals. Whereas at Monterey they were perhaps the quintessential psychedelic band, their Woodstock performance reflected the band's move to what they themselves described as "rock and soul" music. Silver and Gold was certainly one of the hardest rocking songs the band had ever performed, but was not released until 2009, when Rhino released its multi-disc Woodstock anniversary collection.

Artist: Blues Project
Title: Mean Old Southern
Source: LP: Live At Town Hall
Writer: public domain
Label: Verve Forecast
Year: 1967
The third Blues Project album was also the last to feature keyboardist Al Kooper, who would soon show up as a guest artist on Moby Grape's Grape Jam album and expand the jam band concept to a full-blown Super Session album a few months after that. Although the album title implied that it was made up of live performances, the reality was that half the tracks were actually studio recordings with audience sounds overdubbed to create the illusion of live performances.

Once again attempting to assert my control over the show, I decide to do a set from 1965. The show responds with four songs from all over the board.

Artist: Bob Dylan
Title: Positively 4th Street
Source: 45 RPM single (promo copy)
Writer: Bob Dylan
Label: Columbia
Year: 1965
Recorded during the same 1965 sessions that produced the classic Highway 61 Revisited album, Positively 4th Street was deliberately held back for release as a single later that year. It would not appear on an LP until the first Dylan Greatest Hits album.

Artist: Byrds
Title: The Times They Are A-Changin'
Source: CD: Turn! Turn! Turn!
Writer: Bob Dylan
Label: Columbia Legacy
Year: 1965
In their early days the Byrds established themselves as the premier interpreters of Bob Dylan songs, helping to popularize the folk-rock movement in the process. Although not released as a single, The Times They Are A-Changin' was a staple of the band's live sets at Ciro's Le Disc on Sunset Strip and on the road.

Artist: Sir Douglas Quintet
Title: She's About A Mover
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Doug Sahm
Label: Rhino (original label: Tribe)
Year: 1965
Our second Texas band of the night is one of the original Tex-Mex bands, the Sir Douglas Quintet. Coming from the San Antonio area, Doug Sahm's outfit scored two big hits: She's About A Mover and (after relocating to San Francisco) Mendocino.

Artist: Bonzo Dog Band
Title: I'm The Urban Spaceman
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Neil Innes
Label: United Artists
Year: 1968
The Bonzo Dog Dada Band (as they were originally called) was as much theatre (note the British spelling) as music, and were known for such antics as starting out their performances by doing calisthentics (after being introduced as the warm-up band) and having one of the members, "Legs" Larry Smith tapdance on stage (he was actually quite good). In 1967 they became the resident band on Do Not Adjust Your Set, a children's TV show that also featured sketch comedy by future Monty Python members Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin and David Jason, the future voice of Mr. Toad and Danger Mouse. In 1968 they released their only hit single, I'm The Urban Spaceman, co-produced by Paul McCartney. Neil Innes would go on to hook up with Eric Idle for the Rutles projects, among others, and is often referred to as the Seventh Python.

Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Salt of the Earth
Source: CD: Beggar's Banquet
Writer: Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1968
After scathing critical reviews and disappointing sales for their most psychedelic album, Their Satanic Majesties Request, the Stones took a few months off to regroup. They returned to the studio with a new producer (Jimmy Miller, who had previously worked with Traffic) and a back-to-basics approach that resulted in a new single, Jumpin' Jack Flash, followed by the release of the Beggar's Banquet album. The closing track of that album was Salt of the Earth, a song that started off sounding like a drinking song, gradually building up to a gospel-inflected fadeout.

Artist: King Crimson
Title: Cirkus
Source: LP: Lizard
Writer: Fripp/Sinfield
Label: Polydor
Year: 1970
By the release of the third King Crimson album, many key players had departed the band, including vocalist Greg Lake and keyboardist Ian McDonald. Still, such is the appeal of working with someone like bandleader Robert Fripp that he has never had any problem getting replacement personnel. In this case the new members would include Gordon Haskell on bass and vocals and Andy McCulloch on drums.

Artist: Turtles
Title: The Last Thing I Remember, The First Thing I Knew
Source: Turtles 1968 (12" 45 RPM Picture Disc)
Writer: The Turtles
Label: Rhino
Year: 1968
In 1968 the Turtles rebelled against their record company. They did not attempt to break the contract or go on strike, though. Instead, they simply went into the studio and produced four songs that they themselves wrote and chose to record. The record company, however, chose not to issue any of the self-produced recordings (although one, Surfer Dan, did end up on their Battle of the Bands album a few months later). Finally, in the late 1970s a small independent label known for issuing oddball recordings by the likes of Barnes and Barnes (Fish Heads) and professional wrestler Fred Blassie (Pencil-Neck Geek) put out a 12-inch picture disc featuring the four tunes. That label also began reissuing old Turtles albums, starting it on a path that has since become the stock in trade for Rhino Records.

Artist: West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Title: Ritual # 2
Source: LP: A Child's Guide To Good and Evil
Writer: Markley/Harris
Label: Reprise
Year: 1968
The second hour starts off with a track from the third West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band album for Reprise, generally considered to be the best of the bunch. There's a reason music like theirs is sometimes called Acid Rock, and this track is as good an example as you'll find. Best listened to with headphones on.

At this point, the show is firmly in control of itself, so I decide just to go with the flow and see where it takes me.

Artist: Rising Sons
Title: If The River Was Whiskey (Divin' Duck Blues)
Source: CD: The Rising Sons
Writer: Sleepy John Estes
Label: Columbia Legacy
Year: 1965
Considering that by 1970 Columbia had established itself as one of the two dominant record companies when it came to the music of the left-leaning counter-culture (the other being Warner Brothers), it's odd to realize that a scant five years earlier they were known for their essential conservatism. Consider the case of the Rising Sons, a multi-racial band featuring such future stars as Taj Mahal, Ry Cooder and Jessie Kincaid. Although they had been signed by Columbia in 1965, nobody at the label had a clue on how to market or even properly produce the band's recordings. By mid-1966 the entire project was shelved and the tapes sat on a shelf in the vault until 1992, when someone at the label realized the historical significance of what they had.

Artist: Big Brother and the Holding Company
Title: Down On Me
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on LP: Joplin In Concert)
Writer: Trad. Arr. Joplin
Label: Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1968
Speaking of clueless record companies, we have a song originally recorded in 1967 at the studios of Mainstream Records, a medium-sized Chicago label known for its jazz recordings. At the time, Mainstream's engineers had no experience with a rock band, particularly a loud one like Big Brother, and vainly attempted to clean up the band's sound as best they could. The result was an album full of bland recordings sucked dry of the energy that made Big Brother and the Holding Company one of the top live attractions of its time. Luckily we have this live recording made in early 1968 and released in 1972 that captures the band at their peak, before powerful people with questionable motives convinced singer Janis Joplin that the rest of the group was holding her back.

Artist: Five Americans
Title: Western Union
Source: CD: More Nuggets (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Rabon/Ezell/Durrell
Label: Rhino (original label: Abnak)
Year: 1967
One of the biggest hits of 1967 came from a band from Southeastern State College in Durant Oklahoma, although they probably played at least as many gigs in neighboring Texas as in their home state. the Five Americans. Having already scored a minor hit with I See The Light the previous year, the group hit the #5 spot on the national charts with Western Union, featuring a distinctive opening organ riff designed to evoke the sound of a telegraph receiver picking up Morse code.

Artist: Standells
Title: Why Pick On Me
Source: CD: Best of the Standells
Writer: Ed Cobb
Label: Rhino (original label: Tower)
Year: 1966
Ed Cobb, who produced both the Standells and their Tower labelmates the Chocolate Watchband, was also a prolific songwriter who penned three charting singles for the former band in 1966. Why Pick On Me, while the least successful of the three, still manages to capture the zeitgeist of late 60s youth alienation.

When the show takes it on itself to segue from the Standells to Blind Faith, I realize I have to do something. Unfortunately, the show is not about to relinquish control without a fight. Thus we have a just-as-jarring jump to the Beach Boys before I can do anything about it.

Artist: Blind Faith
Title: Presence of the Lord
Source: LP: Blind Faith
Writer: Eric Clapton
Label: Polydor
Year: 1969
When the album Blind Faith first came out, several critics questioned why Steve Winwood sang lead on this track instead of songwriter Eric Clapton. Many went so far as to say Clapton should have sung the tune, but after countless recordings of Clapton singing Presence of the Lord in the ensuing years, it's kind of refreshing to go back and hear Winwood's interpretation [just not between the Standells and the Beach Boys!].

Artist: Beach Boys
Title: Hang On To Your Ego
Source: CD: Good Vibrations-30 Years of the Beach Boys
Writer: Brian Wilson
Label: Capitol
Year: 1966
The Beatles Rubber Soul album is generally considered a turning point in rock music in that it represents the first time an album was conceived as a coherent whole, as opposed to a collection of unrelated songs. Despite the fact that the US version of the album was not entirely the album the Beatles intended it to be, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys took it as an inspiration to create Pet Sounds. Hang On To Your Ego is an early version of the song that became I Know There's An Answer from that album. Interestingly enough, Paul McCartney has said that Pet Sounds was the inspiration for the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album.

Artist: Oracle
Title: Don't Say No
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Ruthann Friedmann
Label: Rhino
Year: 1968
Our final Texas band of the night was not actually from Texas, although they were discovered there. Originally from Lake Charles, Louisiana, the Oracle relocated to L.A. in time to cut this single for Verve Forecast.

Finally, I manage to regain control of the show just in time to present an entire half hour segment of the Grateful Dead.

Artist: Grateful Dead
Title: Dark Star
Source: LP: Live Dead
Writer: Hunter/Garcia
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1969
The most legendary of all the songs in the Grateful Dead performing repertoire was Dark Star. The extended jam often ran for a full hour or more. Thanks to the band's policy of allowing (even encouraging) fans to bring their own recording equipment to the band's concerts, there are literally hundreds of recordings of Dark Star being performed over the years, some of them taped directly from the band's own sound board. The version on Live Dead has the distinction of being the first sound board recording to be officially released on an album.

Artist: Grateful Dead
Title: Truckin'
Source: CD: Skeletons From the Closet (originally released on LP: American Beauty)
Writer: Garcia/Weir/Hunter/Lesh
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1970
After two albums that mixed live and studio material and one double live LP, the Dead decided to make a serious effort to record an album entirely in the studio that was built around the songwriting rather than the performances. The result was American Beauty, the band's most commercially successful album up to that point. Along with the followup album, Workingman's Dead, American Beauty defined the Grateful Dead's sound for all but the most dedicated of concertgoers (the legendary Deadheads).

And that wraps up another week's edition of Stuck in the Psychedelic Era. successful single (until the 1986 single Touch of Gray). Along with the followup album, Workingman's Dead, American Beauty defined the Grateful Dead's sound for all but the most dedicated of concertgoers (the legendary Deadheads) for many years.

And that wraps up another week's edition of Stuck in the Psychedelic Era. Tune in next week to see if I can retain control over the show.